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Okay, so I lied
Jan. 14th, 2006 08:35 pmOr, 24 hours in Tel Aviv, and I've already found an internet cafe.
The best way to getto know a city is to walk in it. The BEST best way to get to know a city is to walk in it and get lost a few times. Seriously. You can get an idea of it if you stick to the main drags, but if you strike out across country from one main drag to the next - particularly in a city where the streets curve around and change names the way Liberace changed costumes - you will get a much better picture of what it's like.
And I can tell you, after only 24 hours but about 20 miles of walking, that Tel Aviv is wonderful.
I got into the hostel at about 5pm, just as twilight was coming on. The hostel is clean and efficient, but not terribly exciting. One of my fellow students showed me the best way to get to the "main drag" and then left me to my own devices. So I started walking. The shops were mostly closed, but it was fun looking in the windows, and there were plenty of food vendors open (Tel Aviv is not as religious a city as Jerusalem, and observance of Shabat is strictly voluntary). I have a lot more appreciation for people who come to the US not speaking the language - I can't even begin to make out what signs say. Fortunately, the street signs are handily written in Hebrew, Arabic and English. I walked a goodly distance (a couple miles) and then back, to find my roomie awake and both of us hungry. So we walked the same street again, passing restaurants bustling with locals but feeling so awkward that we didn't have the nerve to take a table. The menus were not in English, the waitstaff was busy, and we were shy. We joked that we were going to end up eating at McDonald's, but in the end we found a French restaurant - with menus in Hebrew and French - and knew we could dope out a French menu. Dinner was delicious.
This morning there was no hot water. This did not make me a happy Gini. And then we realized that Stephanie had misread the time for breakfast and we were too late. She had to spend the day doing the reading for class, so I volunteered to run fetch us coffee. The coffee here is amazing. It's about three blocks to the nearest coffee shop, and as I was walking back I realized that after only three trips down this street it already felt comfortable and familiar. things are very green right now because of all the rain, and flowers are blooming. It's very pretty.
After a breakfast of delicious coffee and incredible oranges that I'd bought at the grocer on the way home the night before, I decided to take off for a long walk. The hostel is right across the street from the river, which has a park on either bank, so I walked toward the sea. I want to get a bird book tomorrow, if I can, because I saw all kinds of new birds. Once I hit the shore, I walked down to the promenade and then down to the end of it, and if I'd been paying a little more attention I would have realized that I was only about half a mile from Jaffa. Alas, I missed this fact from the map and turned back at Dan Promenade hotel. But I didn't want to take the same route back so struck out, with the limited help of my tiny map, toward the main streets.
There was a fair amount of perplexity and backtracking involved in this particular portion of the day.
Eventually I hit a real main drag and figured I was set. Rothschild has a park strip running up its center and it is adorned with dozens and dozens of life-sized bulls, all painted or decorated. Some with wings, some interacting with other objects (a globe, a child's slide...), some rather plain but bizarre colors.
This was not as impressive as it sounds.
But the street was pretty otherwise, and I knew I was making progress back toward home. Until this confusing traffic circle, and the utter lack of sunlight to afford orientation and...
I was back by the shore. But I was on a main street that actually did go right where I needed it to, so everything was all right.
By now, 3 hours and change of solid walking had passed, and I was functioning on an orange and a cuppa. I needed food. I wanted local food. I still felt awkward. Finally I walked into a little stand and said, "I'm hungry, and I speak no Hebrew," and they fed me hummus with beans and an egg, falafel, and fresh, warm pita. That and a Diet Coke came to $5.50 American. I haven't had to eat anything else today.
Tel Aviv is wonderful. The best part is how few franchises there are. There's McDonald's, and KFC. Domino's and Pizza Hut and , almost incomprehensibly, Re/Max Realty. but otherwise, it's all local.
And thriving. Everything is close together, and the apartment buildings are between the main streets. Lots of apartments are right over the shops. It feels very alive,.
And extremely safe. I went back to the hostel for a while, but got bored and came back out. Shabat is over and more shops are open, more people are about. Everyone is walking and active. I feel very comfortable walking around.
I'm heading back now, having used up too much internet time already. It will get a bit less interesting in the next few days, because I will be in class all day. But I wow is this worth the time it took to get here.
The best way to getto know a city is to walk in it. The BEST best way to get to know a city is to walk in it and get lost a few times. Seriously. You can get an idea of it if you stick to the main drags, but if you strike out across country from one main drag to the next - particularly in a city where the streets curve around and change names the way Liberace changed costumes - you will get a much better picture of what it's like.
And I can tell you, after only 24 hours but about 20 miles of walking, that Tel Aviv is wonderful.
I got into the hostel at about 5pm, just as twilight was coming on. The hostel is clean and efficient, but not terribly exciting. One of my fellow students showed me the best way to get to the "main drag" and then left me to my own devices. So I started walking. The shops were mostly closed, but it was fun looking in the windows, and there were plenty of food vendors open (Tel Aviv is not as religious a city as Jerusalem, and observance of Shabat is strictly voluntary). I have a lot more appreciation for people who come to the US not speaking the language - I can't even begin to make out what signs say. Fortunately, the street signs are handily written in Hebrew, Arabic and English. I walked a goodly distance (a couple miles) and then back, to find my roomie awake and both of us hungry. So we walked the same street again, passing restaurants bustling with locals but feeling so awkward that we didn't have the nerve to take a table. The menus were not in English, the waitstaff was busy, and we were shy. We joked that we were going to end up eating at McDonald's, but in the end we found a French restaurant - with menus in Hebrew and French - and knew we could dope out a French menu. Dinner was delicious.
This morning there was no hot water. This did not make me a happy Gini. And then we realized that Stephanie had misread the time for breakfast and we were too late. She had to spend the day doing the reading for class, so I volunteered to run fetch us coffee. The coffee here is amazing. It's about three blocks to the nearest coffee shop, and as I was walking back I realized that after only three trips down this street it already felt comfortable and familiar. things are very green right now because of all the rain, and flowers are blooming. It's very pretty.
After a breakfast of delicious coffee and incredible oranges that I'd bought at the grocer on the way home the night before, I decided to take off for a long walk. The hostel is right across the street from the river, which has a park on either bank, so I walked toward the sea. I want to get a bird book tomorrow, if I can, because I saw all kinds of new birds. Once I hit the shore, I walked down to the promenade and then down to the end of it, and if I'd been paying a little more attention I would have realized that I was only about half a mile from Jaffa. Alas, I missed this fact from the map and turned back at Dan Promenade hotel. But I didn't want to take the same route back so struck out, with the limited help of my tiny map, toward the main streets.
There was a fair amount of perplexity and backtracking involved in this particular portion of the day.
Eventually I hit a real main drag and figured I was set. Rothschild has a park strip running up its center and it is adorned with dozens and dozens of life-sized bulls, all painted or decorated. Some with wings, some interacting with other objects (a globe, a child's slide...), some rather plain but bizarre colors.
This was not as impressive as it sounds.
But the street was pretty otherwise, and I knew I was making progress back toward home. Until this confusing traffic circle, and the utter lack of sunlight to afford orientation and...
I was back by the shore. But I was on a main street that actually did go right where I needed it to, so everything was all right.
By now, 3 hours and change of solid walking had passed, and I was functioning on an orange and a cuppa. I needed food. I wanted local food. I still felt awkward. Finally I walked into a little stand and said, "I'm hungry, and I speak no Hebrew," and they fed me hummus with beans and an egg, falafel, and fresh, warm pita. That and a Diet Coke came to $5.50 American. I haven't had to eat anything else today.
Tel Aviv is wonderful. The best part is how few franchises there are. There's McDonald's, and KFC. Domino's and Pizza Hut and , almost incomprehensibly, Re/Max Realty. but otherwise, it's all local.
And thriving. Everything is close together, and the apartment buildings are between the main streets. Lots of apartments are right over the shops. It feels very alive,.
And extremely safe. I went back to the hostel for a while, but got bored and came back out. Shabat is over and more shops are open, more people are about. Everyone is walking and active. I feel very comfortable walking around.
I'm heading back now, having used up too much internet time already. It will get a bit less interesting in the next few days, because I will be in class all day. But I wow is this worth the time it took to get here.
